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Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Holly and Brett from The Amazing Race Canada: the inside story

It has been almost two months now since
married Montreal pediatrians Brett Burstein and Holly Agostino were
eliminated in the seventh leg of CTV’s The Amazing Race Canada. Depicted by the show as villains from the get
go, the couple sat down with The Suburban at the Montreal Children’s Hospital during a break from Brett’s shift in
the emergency room and Holly doing rounds to share their thoughts and provide
some insight into some of the behind the scenes mysteries viewers are not privy
to.

Here I am with the "Amazing" couple.

CTV’s first-ever season
of The
Amazing Race Canada was a ratings success, attracting more 3.6 million viewers for the final episode in
which the father and son team of Tim Sr. and Tim Jr. took home the $250,000 grand prize. Brett, 33, and Holly, 32, met 10 years ago
at McGill Medical School. He is from Toronto, but came here to do his
undergraduate work and never left; she
was raised in West Island Pointe Claire.

The couple laugh at how the camera portrayed
them right up until their elimination in Iqaluit,
Nunavut: bickering, hiding maps in an airport store and Holly suffering
numerous meltdowns. “We were unfairly portrayed,” said Brett. “The storyline
was written before we even showed up. We were definitely brought there to be rooted against.”

Added Holly: “It
definitely was tough to watch,” said Holly. “We watched each episode live and
20 family and friends around the TV with us.
Going through the race, I know that I had many moments where I was
really on the verge of fully losing it, but in the end we still succeeded. So, I had left the race really feeling that,
you know, we had done our best and we had done a good job. So, to see it edited, you know, I mean I did
have those breakdowns. It’s true, but
there was a lot of effort that went into it before that happened, so yeah, it’s
a bit tough to watch, but I mean, overall we’re still, you know, very happy
with the show and happy we had the chance to participate.”

Added Brett: “I
think one thing that maybe people don’t know through the editing process is how
important for us the race was to do, to be able to contribute charitably back to our hospital that has
already given us so much,” said Brett. “ If we won the Amazing Race Canada, it
would not have even cut our educational
debt in half.We were committed to giving 25 percent of the prize to the
hospital. We love where we work and we
love that they sort of supported us the whole time.”

One of the more
memorable challenges saw the teams trying to
find toys in six-feet-deep lentil bins. “ I can’t do it,” Holly said in
the episode. “I have no more strength in my legs. I’m spent Brett . . . I’m
going on one hour sleep. I can’t dig in this pit anymore.”

With more than two hours and 20 minutes having passed since Holly and
Brett arrived at the lentil challenge, they made the decision to incur a
two-hour penalty and not complete the challenge. “ For me, I know that emotionally the
game actually almost became easier after the lentil bin,” said Holly.

Working with the hospital’s Foundation, Brett and
Holly started a blog called Amazingcause.com which also allowed people to make
donations. In the end, $21,000 was collected.

So what is it like behind the scenes of the
show? They applied to become competitors
last February and were only notified they made it two weeks before departure
after first submitting a video, doing a screen test and undergoing medical and
psychological evaluations. Since nobody was to know where they were going, the
cover story was a five week trip to China. A week prior to filming, they were literally cut off from the world
as training camp began. They were not
allowed to use any kind of phones. The
teams could not mix socially. When they stayed at hotels, the rooms were
stripped of phones, televisions, radios and even things to read. A guard was
posted outside their door and they could have one hour a day of exercise in
solitude. They could not even use a washing machine, instead ringing clothing
out in the hotel sink. “It really was like being in prison,” Holly laughed.
“But when we were filming, people figured out this was The Amazing Race Canada. Our cover story was the show was called
The Marathon, but through social media our pictures were all over the place
before the program even aired.”

Each team had a camera and sound operator following
them, lugging 50 pounds of equipment. “We always had to make sure they kept up
to us,” Holly said. “And when we arrived at the airport, if there were not four
available seats on the plane we could not go.”

Once home, the couple had to keep quiet about the
outcome or face a $1 million fine.

After being eliminated from the race, Brett and
Holly remained with the group and actually did a dry run of the final leg in
Toronto to assist production with the timing of the episode.

The couple presently reside downtown near the hospital.
Holly attended Northview Elementary School
and Lindsay Place High, moving on to John Abbott College and then
McGill. Her dad Andrew is a high school teacher on the South Shore while mom
Louise works with special needs children. She has a sister, Erin, 28, an actress who appeared on the CBC sitcome 18
to Life.

Brett says when he was 11 years old he decided that
one day he wanted to become a pediatric
cardiologist. He did in fact complete his PhD in cardiology, but says his
passion remains in the emergency room. Holly focuses her attention on
adolescent medicine.

Growing up in the Toronto neighbourhood of North
York, seven years ago Brett and his younger brother participated in a
Birthright Israel trip. “It was an incredible
experience I will never forget,” he said.

Brett and Holly
said quite directly that they have remained good friends with all of the teams,
except exercise gurus Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod. “We visited the Tims in
Halifax,” said Brett. “Most of them have
come to Montreal already and stayed with us.”

Oddly enough, the
couple do not find themselves being
recognized a lot in Montreal. “In
Toronto, yes,” said Brett. “And when we went to see the Tims in Halifax, we
were all mobbed.”